Albany Public Library is presenting a revised proposed 2012 budget to voters on Tuesday, July 19. Here you'll find information about the revised budget and its impact on you. You'll also find information about how to obtain an absentee ballot and how to locate your voting location.
Impact of New Proposed 2012 Library Budget
May 27, 2011--The Albany Public Library Board of Trustees voted to reduce its proposed budget significantly and to make polling places available across the city for the July 19 budget revote.
The revised proposed budget cuts $717,802 from the budget turned back by voters on May 17. The impact on taxpayers with a home in the Albany City School District assessed at $150,000 would be $28.05—a $19.33 reduction from the original budget increase of $47.38 for the same home.
The $8,843,794 plan retains core services while saving money by making reductions needed to run the Library’s expanded system. These cuts include:
“This budget represents very difficult choices but we believe it’s a budget the people of Albany, who love our new libraries, can support,” said Dennis Gaffney, President of the Library’s Board of Trustees. "This balances what the library needs to function with what taxpayers can afford."
By approving this budget, the Trustees are presenting a spending plan that maintains hours even though the budget’s increase is much smaller than the Library’s rate of expansion. The Library now has twice as many buildings, a third more square footage, nearly twice the collection, and has experienced a 20 percent jump in usage.
“We’ve made cuts that will no doubt be painful to our patrons and to our staff,” said Carol Nersinger, the Library’s Executive Director. “We’re here for the community and will continue to provide the best library programs and services with the resources we have.”
The budget vote will take place on Tuesday, July 19, from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. After gauging the response to its initial decision to hold its next vote only at the Main Library in order to save money and to avoid the difficulties of running its own election for the first time, the Board voted to hold the budget vote at the 18 polling places typically used for a school district vote. The board made the decision at a meeting on May 27.
“The Board heard the public and acted swiftly,” Gaffney said.
For those not in town on July 19, absentee ballots will be available.
Albany Public Library will automatically send absentee ballots to people designated as having a permanent disability by the Albany County Board of Elections.
Others who want to vote with an absentee ballot because of illness, hospitalization, vacation, studies, business, or incarceration must apply for the absentee ballot.
You can call the Administration Office at the Main Library at 427-4305 to have an application mailed to you or you can download an application clicking here. You can also pick up an application at any Albany Public Library location during regular business hours.
If you want the absentee ballot mailed to your home, you must mail the completed application to the City School District of Albany clerk seven days before the vote—Tuesday, July 12. If you want to pick up your absentee ballot at the school district clerk’s office, you must have your completed application to the district clerk by 5 p.m. the day before the budget vote—Monday, July 18.
All absentee ballots must be returned to the school district clerk by 5 p.m. the day of the library budget vote—Tuesday, July 19.
The office of the district clerk for the City School District of Albany is located in the School Administration Building in Academy Park on Elk Street in Albany. The district clerk can be reached by phone at 475-6010.